I Will Never Allow It
In the warehouse behind the Frigid Grand Ducal Castle.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Once again Allen sat gagged, both hands bound behind the chair, thrashing with everything he had in a desperate bid to free himself.
His little sister’s “venting” had not ended with a single session.
She came at least once every day, without fail, to work out her rage on him.
Always carefully enough that he would not die.
Then she poured every last drop of the rarest, most expensive healing potions over him so that by the next day he would be whole enough for her to start all over again.
He had known she doted on their younger brother, that she loved him, but he had never imagined it would go this far.
Creeeeak…
The door scraped open.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
After days locked inside the warehouse, Allen saw the women enter and thrashed even harder, terror flooding through him.
There’s another one?!
Surviving one person’s fury was already hell; today the maid had come along as well.
No—if this keeps up I’ll be ruined, a broken wreck!
His body they always restored after the beatings, so that part did not matter.
At first he had told himself they were simply in shock and it would pass.
But doing this to a man every single day was excessive.
And the people he resented most right now were not the women walking toward him—it was his own family.
Mother! Am I not your child as well…? And little brother! Why have you never once come looking for this older brother of yours?!
Their father held no real power in the household, so that could be excused. But Mother Camilla had clearly said they would talk later—why had she never come for him?
Above all else, the very person who had created this situation—Edward—had never come looking for him. That made no sense.
Step. Step.
They were closing in.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
No, no! At this rate I’ll be destroyed!
I’m family too, I’m her older brother—why this discrimination?!
“Mmph-mmph-mmph! (Lirith!)”
Even with the gag muffling every word, Allen could only plead his little sister’s name as she approached.
When Lirith stopped in front of him, she delivered news that crushed whatever hope he still clung to—almost as if she had read every desperate thought racing through his mind.
“…Don’t get your hopes up. Mother already gave her permission, and I told Ed you went home. So don’t expect anyone to come save you, all right?”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Ah, Mother, that is too cruel.
Even if some punishment was warranted, you allowed him to be tortured this long?
And little brother—why would you believe that story?!
My only hope was that you would come looking for me!
“Haa… So why did you go and start something without saying a word? Hmm?”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Lirith raised her fist once more, ready for today’s “venting.”
Allen wanted nothing more than to escape, but the bindings were far too tight; he could not break free.
Just as her fist was about to smash into his face—
“My lady, restrain yourself! We still need to make use of this human.”
“Mmph-mmph-mmph! (Thank you!)”
Emma, standing beside her, intervened.
Ordinarily he thought of the maid as nothing but cunning, yet right now she looked like an angel.
She had only stopped the beating because he still had value, but Allen no longer cared about motives.
If it meant escaping this “venting,” he would do anything.
“Can’t I hit him first and then use him?”
“Mmph! (Please!)”
Yet Lirith still refused to lower her fist.
Please stop, you crazy bitch!
“You know perfectly well! Lady Grace… no, that lizard betrayed us, so we have to hurry!”
“Haa… Fine.”
Fortunately Emma’s words persuaded her; Lirith lowered her fist.
The lizard betrayed them?
Ah—she means the half-dragon knight who serves my little brother.
They had supposedly formed an alliance of three, but something had clearly gone wrong.
Thanks to that, Allen was spared today’s “venting.” Lirith roughly yanked the gag from his mouth.
The instant he could speak freely, Allen begged her.
“Li-Lirith! My beloved little sister, yes—use me however you like, I’ll do anything, just please stop!”
With the face of a man ready to sell his very soul, Allen pleaded desperately with his sister.
Please, just end the “venting.”
“Anything?”
“Y-yes! I’ll do anything—no, I shall do anything. Just give the order, Lady Lirith…”
He had never possessed much pride to begin with, but now Allen cast every last scrap of it aside and simply begged for mercy.
Lirith turned her gaze from him to Emma.
“Emma, do you think this human can actually do it?”
“Honestly, we don’t have any other options, do we?”
“…True.”
“I can do it! This older brother—no, this lowly servant—please trust me…”
Allen still had no idea what they intended to make him do, but he begged loudly and pitifully just to escape the immediate crisis.
No more venting. No more venting…
All the composure he had shown when he first visited the Frigid Grand Ducal Castle had vanished without a trace.
He had expected Lirith to be furious, had known the fallout would be severe—but this was beyond anything he had imagined.
From childhood he had tried to treat his little sister warmly, only to be rejected every time.
Yet toward their younger brother Edward she had always been gentle.
He still could not understand what difference made her treat her older brother so differently from her younger one.
If anything, he—the older brother—had tried harder to show her affection and care.
Of course, because he had left home of his own free will, Edward had spent far more years at her side.
Allen had regularly paid people to bring him news of the Frigid household. Rumors had even circulated among the servants that the future head of the house was in love with her own younger brother; Camilla had executed those who dared voice such things.
The gossip that the two siblings were close—or more precisely, that Lirith doted on her little brother—could be explained by the way she openly showed it at banquets and celebrations.
But for whispers of incest to spread inside the family itself was serious.
That was why, when he left the note warning their mother Camilla, he had included the part about Lirith…
Still, he had never dreamed his sister’s love for their younger brother had become this pathological.
What Lirith was doing to him now was almost indistinguishable from what one would do to a hated rival who had stolen a lover.
If he had not been of Frigid blood, if he had not been family…
Would he already be dead?
“…I still don’t trust you, but… we have no choice. Big. Bro. Ther?”
“Yes!”
And so Allen resolved to obey Lirith without question.
He had to get out of this place first; only then could he do anything at all.
“Would you give Ed that damned advice of yours again?”
“Pardon?”
“Tell him that with all these rumors floating around, even if he marries he should marry someone other than that lewd pervert… no, other than the Imperial Princess.”
“What on earth…?”
Locked away in this warehouse, he could not grasp exactly how events were unfolding, but it seemed things between Edward and Charlotte were progressing smoothly.
That was why they were making this absurd request—yet to say he must not marry the princess no matter what… what did that even mean?
Allen, however, had no luxury for questions.
“Or you can rot in here for the rest of your life.”
“N-no, I’ll do it, I’ll do it!!”
Just do whatever they say.
No—just give them the answers they want.
Only then might he escape this place.
“Good decision. Emma, untie him.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Following Lirith’s order, Emma moved behind Allen to free his bonds.
At last he would be free of this torture, free of this hell.
But then—
Lirith left him with one final warning: if he made the wrong choice, he could be brought right back… or something far worse could await him.
“This isn’t a joke. I’m serious. Do exactly as I say. Otherwise I don’t know what I’ll do to you…”
“Th-then! I won’t think any strange thoughts and I won’t run away… hahaha!!”
And so, though Allen was finally released, he could not simply rejoice.
Above all else—
The eyes his little sister turned on him in that last moment looked exactly like those of “her,” the one who had gone on a rampage not long ago.
After freeing Allen, only Lirith and Emma remained in the warehouse.
In truth Camilla had never given permission for him to be tormented this long, and Edward had never fully believed the story that Allen had simply gone home.
They would have had to release him within a day or two anyway.
But to keep Allen from entertaining any other ideas, they had lied and put him to work.
“Damn that Grace. If she’d just stalled a little longer it would have been possible…”
“She was too stupid and simple-minded, I suppose.”
They could not help but seethe with rage.
The three women’s alliance within the Grand Ducal house had proven far more effective at keeping Charlotte in check than expected.
If things had gone well, the Imperial Princess might even have destroyed herself.
Even if she had not, Lirith had prepared her own plans—bribing newspapers to expose the princess’s true lewd nature, for example.
Of course that would have caused a major clash with the Imperial family, but what did that matter?
If relations between the Grand Ducal house and the Imperial family soured, the odds of a broken engagement only rose. It would have been pure profit.
And yet—
Just as Emma said, that stupid, simple-minded knight had betrayed them at once.
Seduced by the princess’s sweet words.
In a way it was only natural; the three of them had formed only a temporary alliance for Edward’s sake.
Because of that, from Lirith’s perspective even the maid Emma could no longer be fully trusted.
“You’re interested too, aren’t you?”
So Lirith asked her outright.
You’re planning to betray us as well, aren’t you?
“Whaaat?! As I’ve already told you, they’re pushing this forward among themselves without Young Master’s permission. I already said I would never fall for that kind of temptation!”
“And if Ed did give permission?”
“That will never happen. Young Master is not that kind of shameless person.”
“…Right.”
At least the maid did not seem as empty-headed as the knight.
Her little brother was not the sort of man who would casually build a household with multiple women.
The maid understood that obvious truth; the stupid knight had not, and so he had been swayed.
They needed to know their place.
How dare they spout nonsense about sharing Edward among themselves?
But because of that betrayal everything had fallen apart, and so they had no choice but to release Allen—the man they had kept locked in this warehouse for their “venting.”
She did not truly believe he would succeed.
Still, hoping he might buy them even a little more time, she had decided to use him.
And so, to ensure he did nothing foolish, Lirith gave Emma her orders.
“For now, keep an eye on that human. Watch whether he does anything strange or not.”
“Yes, understood.”
Ssshhh…
As she answered, Emma’s figure melted soundlessly into the darkness and vanished.
“Ed…”
Alone now in the warehouse, Lirith whispered her little brother’s name.
“Why am I…”
Why was I born as your older sister of all things?
What if I had been born as someone else?
No—because of this I got to know you, got to watch over you from the closest place of all…
But I can never be with you, can I?
Lirith…
No matter how much she suffered because of Edward,
no matter how deeply she loved him,
she would never cross that line.
The moment she did, the little brother she loved would surely come to despise her.
Yet she—
She had always known the day would come when she would have to let him go,
but it had happened so suddenly, without the slightest warning, that she could not accept it.
She had planned to keep him at her side for at least ten years… no, fifty years…
And her little brother, completely unaware of these feelings, was trying to leave her side.
That was why…
Lirith absolutely refused to accept her little brother’s decision.
Not the Imperial Princess.
No—not anyone.
I cannot acknowledge it.
Not yet…
I cannot let you go like this.
“I… I will never allow it.”